The Australian government has initiated its emergency response plan for global pandemics as the coronavirus continues its rapid spread beyond China.
“The COVID-19 plan” – the Australian Health Sector Emergency Response Plan For Novel Coronavirus – is the blueprint for dealing with the event of a large-scale coronavirus outbreak.
“The novel coronavirus outbreak represents a significant risk to Australia,” the document says.
“It has the potential to cause high levels of morbidity and mortality and to disrupt our community socially and economically.”
The plan, which was activated in January amid warnings a pandemic is looming, outlines three degrees of severity for the virus.
The “low” impact is comparable to the 2009 swine flu pandemic. The document states existing plans and laws should be enough to support activities, although at its peak primary care and hospital services may become stretched in areas associated with respiratory illness and acute care.
A “moderate” outbreak would put hospitals under “severe pressure”, particularly in areas associated with respiratory illness and acute care.
“Surge staffing and alternate models of clinical care, such as cohorting and/or establishment of flu-like clinics may need to be employed to cope with increased demands for healthcare,” it notes.
“Pressure on health services will be more intense, rise more quickly and peak earlier as the transmissibility of the disease increases. Healthcare staff may themselves be ill or have to care for ill family members, further exacerbating pressures on healthcare providers.”
A “high” outbreak would be comparable to the extreme 1918 “Spanish flu”, which infected one third of Australians and killed between 50 to 100 million people globally.
In this case, heavy prioritisation would be essential within hospitals and the pressure on health services would be greater, rise more quickly and peak earlier.
Ahead of activating the plan, the Australian government has instituted a ban on traveller coming from China and raised its travel advice for both South Korea and Japan.
News of the plan’s activation comes amid reports that the virus is spreading further in Europe.
A tourist hotel in Tenerife in the Canary Islands has been placed in quarantine after an Italian doctor and his wife staying there both tested positive for coronavirus.
The husband and wife are from northern Italy, which has registered most of Italy’s 283 cases.
The test results are seen as further evidence that the centre of the outbreak in Europe is spreading with holidaying Italians.
The couple was placed in isolation at a clinic in Tenerife. The H10 Adeje Palace hotel was locked down, and its 1000 tourists prevented from leaving, according to Spanish news media and town officials in Adeje.
Austria sealed off the 108-room Grand Hotel Europa in the Alpine tourist hub of Innsbruck after an Italian receptionist tested positive for the flu-like virus that originated in China and has spread to about 30 countries.
The United States told Americans on Tuesday to begin preparing for coronavirus to spread within the country as outbreaks in Iran, South Korea and Italy escalated and fears that the epidemic would hurt global growth rattled markets.
Doctor Anne Schuchat, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention principal deputy director, said that while the immediate risk in the United States was low, the current global situation suggested a pandemic was likely.
“It’s not a question of if. It’s a question of when and how many people will be infected,” Dr Schuchat said.
In Iran, the Deputy Health Minister, who had previously denied that his country had a problem with the virus, has now said he has tested positive.
Beyond the human cost, the virus’ accelerating spread is making markets jittery.
Australian stocks have suffered a third day of heavy losses as the global market rout sparked by the spread of the coronavirus deepens.
-with agencies
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